“Oto-megane”
[2013]

OGATA Hisato (Takram)

“Oto-megane”

撮影：木奥恵三

Photo: KIOKU Keizo

Photo: KIOKU Keizo

Photo: KIOKU Keizo

Outline

This work consists of a variable number of displays that at a glance appear to be showing nothing more than white light. When moving closer, one can hear all kinds of sounds coming from these displays. The visitor to the exhibition can now use the “Oto-megane” (sound monocle) and look through it at the displays, to see the waveforms of the sounds he/she hears, or images of the actions that produce those sounds.

Layered inside a liquid crystal display are two sheets of polarizing film, and only these two sheets together make images visible on the screen. In this work, one of the polarizing films was removed from each of the displays, while a polarizing film with the same properties as the removed one was attached to the Oto-megane, so that the images on the screens are only visible through this monocle.

Vision is considered to be most dominant of human senses. Therefore, in situations where we perceive things visually and acoustically at the same time, the experience of “seeing” is generally the one that dominates. This work, however, was designed to be perceived by the sense of hearing first, and by the sense of vision only after that. Visitors can thus experience the unpredictable effect of the experience of “seeing” being superimposed on the preliminary experience of ”hearing.”